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Parsing error in WordPress

Hey all-

I recently launched my new and improved website on the first of the year. I had a handcoded blog setup thinking that I would just code each entry. Well, that lasted long! I've gotten tired of updating numerous files each time I post a new article. So that led me to WordPress. I've heard it's a great CMS and valid (very important to me) so I downloaded. Well I got it up on my server and webpage alright and since I've never used PHP or WP before, I read Jonathon Wold's tutorial to figure out how to make my own template. It took awhile but I got the template to match fairly similar to my web site (still a few bugs to work out). But for some reason my sidebar won't show up. It get a parse error that states:

<!-- Author information is disabled per default. Uncomment and fill in your details if you want to use it.
<li><h2>Author</h2>
<p>A little something about you, the author. Nothing lengthy, just an overview.</p>
</li>
-->

<?php /* If this is a 404 page */ if (is_404()) { ?>
<?php /* If this is a category archive */ } elseif (is_category()) { ?>
<p>You are currently browsing the archives for the <?php single_cat_title(''); ?> category.</p>

<?php /* If this is a monthly archive */ } elseif (is_search()) { ?>
<p>You have searched the <a href="<?php echo bloginfo('url'); ?>/"><?php echo bloginfo('name'); ?></a> blog archives
for <strong>'<?php the_search_query(); ?>'</strong>. If you are unable to find anything in these search results, you can try one of these links.</p>

Alright so I just downloaded the template and redid my sidebar.php page. Now it's looking pretty good in my opinion. But I have a question regarding the tags. I want to put a "Recent Posts" (showing the most recent entries) and a "Recent Comments" (showing the most recent comments made) section in my sidebar. I looked through the tags and couldn't seem to find something a long the lines of it. Could someone maybe help point me in the right direction??